throw someone a rope

throw someone a rope (third-person singular simple present throws someone a rope, present participle throwing someone a rope, simple past threw someone a rope, past participle thrown someone a rope)

2. (idiomatic) To rescue someone by providing them with help, such as material aid, financial aid, a face-saving excuse, or a clue.

   Coordinate terms: throw someone a bone, give someone a break

   Near-synonyms: save someone's life, save someone's skin, save someone's bacon, pull someone's bacon out of the fire, give someone a hand, lend a hand, bail someone out

   He's out there making a fool of himself. Someone should throw him a rope.

   • 2011, Gillian Welch, “The Way It Will Be”, in The Harrow & the Harvest‎^[1], performed by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings:

     Throw me a rope
     On the rolling tide
     What did you want it to be?
     You said it's him or me
     The way you made it
     That's the way it will be

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: to rescue someone from drowning by tossing a rope for them to grab onto and be dragged to safety.

   He's out there fighting the riptide. We need to throw him a rope.